The present invention generally relates to telephone call centers. In particular, the present invention relates to allocating call center personnel to handle different types of telephone calls.
A call center is a facility that handles telephone calls for an organization, usually using some level of computer control. Typically, the telephone calls handled by a call center are incoming calls from present or potential customers of the organization. The incoming calls are generally distributed among a number of agents within the call center who are each trained to handle certain types of incoming calls. A call center will normally be capable of handling many different types of calls coming into the organization. For example, a call center may be set up to receive calls relating to each of a multitude of different products, product types, or product families sold by the corresponding organization. Alternatively, or in addition, a call center may be arranged to handle calls relating to different services or information dissemination functions provided by the organization. Some such services/functions include: taking product orders, providing customer service, providing pricing and/or availability information, or any of a variety of other functions. The types of calls that are supported by a call center are commonly referred to as the xe2x80x9cskillsxe2x80x9d of the call center.
It is often desirable that each of the different call types or skills associated with a call center be handled differently by the call center. That is, some of the skills may be deemed by the corresponding organization to be more important than other skills and hence are to be given more attention or better service by the call center. Thus, a service level target is often defined for each of the different skills of the call center to indicate a desired level of service for the skill. However, past techniques for achieving the desired service levels for each of the skills of a call center have generally been inadequate. That is, actual performance levels for the different skills have not accurately reflected the desired service level targets defined for those skills.
In order to meet skill level targets, agents may be assigned to handle incoming calls regarding a particular skill. Agents who have been cross-trained in other skills, or other call center personnel whose primary duties do not involve answering incoming calls, may be designated as reserve agents. When service level targets for a particular skill are not met, personnel classified as reserve agents for that skill may be assigned to answer incoming telephone calls related to that skill.
Computer-based systems for allocating call center personnel to different skills are available. However, such systems have typically utilized thresholds for adding or removing personnel from a particular skill that are at least in part based on previous threshold values. As a result, such systems have been incapable of rapidly adjusting to changes in demand for a particular skill. As a result, adjustments in the staffing of a particular skill typically lag behind changes in demand for that skill. Therefore, the allocation of call center personnel does not track demand, and caller wait times may be greater than or less than targeted wait times.
The present invention is directed to solving these and other problems and disadvantages of the prior art. Generally, according to the present invention, a system is provided for allocating call center personnel to handle calls of a particular call type (i.e. regarding a particular skill) based on the fraction of the target service level that a measured service level represents. Initially, an administered threshold value is multiplied by this fraction to obtain a dynamically adjusted threshold. If a measured wait time for a call of a first type is greater than the dynamically adjusted threshold, additional call center personnel may be assigned to answer calls of the first type. Alternatively, if the actual wait time for a caller in connection with a call of the first type is less than the dynamically adjusted threshold, call center personnel may be released from handling calls of the first type, and may be assigned to other duties.
In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, the value obtained by multiplying the administered threshold value by the fraction of the target service level that the measured service level represents is proportioned by a scaling factor. In accordance with a further embodiment of the present invention, the value obtained by multiplying the administered threshold value by the fraction of the target service level that the measured service level represents is normalized by subtracting the administered threshold value, and the result is proportioned by a scaling factor. The proportioned and translated value is then retranslated by adding the administered threshold value.
The present invention provides a dynamically adjusted threshold that does not depend on previous threshold values. Accordingly, the provided dynamically adjusted threshold is capable of changing rapidly in response to changes in measured call center service levels. In response to such changes in the dynamically adjusted threshold, call center personnel may be assigned to calls of the type to which the dynamically adjusted threshold pertains or to other tasks as demand warrants.